For many years, the various devices associated with a data processing system (such as central processing units, tape drives and disk drives) have been packaged in individual box-type enclosures and installed at spaced or contiguous locations within a data processing center. Each enclosure has to be specially designed and fabricated to meet specific requirements, which may result in limited packaging flexibility to accommodate growth, limited accessibility for service, poor utilization of floor space, and increased development cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,492,309 discloses a skeletal frame having a plurality of identically sized apertures for receiving and supporting a plurality of substantially identical electrical component-supporting trays and front panels affixed thereto. U.S. Pat. No. 3,139,559 discloses a compartmented housing for receiving a plurality of substantially identical network assemblies in a modular structure. This and other prior art known to applicants does not, however, disclose or suggest an apparatus and method for mounting data processing devices of relatively massive size and of differing configurations in standardized hollow structures having identical sets of apertures and enclosing the portions of said devices that project forwardly and rearwardly of the structure with covers that are distinctive to the particular device but have an outer dimension that enables them to be interchangeably mountable against any one of the apertures.